This spring, I’m offering the wildest thing I’ve ever grown, “Metaphoresty.”

metaphorestry (n) – The practice of connecting deeply with nature through metaphor.

Nurture meaningful relationships between the natural world, your true nature, and the nature of the world all around you.

Metaphorestry

You’ve been using metaphor to connect with nature in empowering ways all your life, but may not know it.

Our daily experiences are infused with language cues from the natural world: grief comes in waves, ideas compress into nutshells, solidity holds the form of rocks, independence shapes into the winged forms of eagles.

Metaphors are as natural to our use of language as they are to the way we think, and by extension, act. So why not use metaphor proactively to rekindle your ancient connection to the deep abiding wisdom readily offered by the natural world?

Put your hand on the bark of a tree and feel your own thick skin. Hold the stone on your windowsill and feel a patient restfulness within. Watch clouds part and delight in seeing a new idea come to light. Let go of a leaf and ready yourself for change. Tap into nature’s deepest messages mirroring your deepest needs–even unearth buried knowledge within.

Awaken to the realization that you are more than just a part of nature–you are nature.

I call the practice “Metaphorestry.”

Join me to build your own metaphorestry practice.

Connecting with Nature Through Metaphor: A Metaphorestry Field Guide

Upcoming dates/fees coming soon.

Get on the waitlist for future metaphorestry offerings.

How we’ll meet together

We’ll gather on Zoom one evening a week for three weeks. Each session is a “field guide” to practicing metaphorestry, and prepares you for a solo encounter with nature between meetings.

The solo encounter may be in your backyard, where you sit under a tree and feel a deep rootedness within, or even on your own couch, in a sun patch, where you radiate the warmth of love. It may be on the side of a mountain or along a creek at a local park.

Wherever you are, metaphorestry asks you to make a connection with nature (hold, let go, sit with, push, feel—interact) and through that connection point, keep extending, developing, pondering and playing with a metaphor that links up with nature in meaningful, mindful ways. That extension may be through writing, drawing, conversation, even meditation.

As we go, we’ll explore ways nature can nurture you–and you can nurture nature:

- Enrich your creative practice by embodying metaphors, not just thinking about them. You may find yourself pushing boulders to experience steadiness in the face of pressure, or absorbing sunlight to feel nourished as a leaf.
- Get out of your head, onto your feet, and out of doors to exercise your heart both literally and metaphorically. Leave your phone behind, and rediscover the simple joy of a bird lifting off a branch evoking freedom within you. Nurture your natural capacity for self-reflection.
- Reduce stress. Even a few minutes of bird, squirrel or butterfly watching can improve mood and drop blood pressure.
- Rediscover your natural belonging with all beings of this world. We long for a connection to nature and to understand ourselves and the world. Nature offers clues. Metaphorestry helps you find them and learn their secret messages.
- Discover over a dozen ways to develop metaphors and use them with ease in conversation, writing, even your own meditation practice–from borrowing the simplicity of a simile’s “like” or “as,” to embracing ambiguity and intensifying by mystification.
- Ponder the fathomless depths of nature’s mysteries by pausing to connect with wildness–whether you watch a fawn drink from a like’s shore, touch an orchid blooming in wetlands, unearth a geode shining with hidden light, or simply behold a squirrel’s tenacious digging. Careful observation cultivates the majesty of awe, and hones your natural tendency to liken inner world to outer (without getting hindered by cliche) and tap into nature’s innate lessons on how to live well.

You’ll receive a Metaphorestry Field Guide between each session to help guide your solo adventures.

“There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.” ~Gerard Manley Hopkins

With each small act of metaphorestry you are merging three powerful resources—metaphor, nature, and your own innate knowledge—to access hidden insight within you, the language you use, and the natural world.

Through discussion, tips, prompts, and exercises, you’ll receive guidance on how to connect deeply, even profoundly, with the natural world using metaphor. Together we’ll try out techniques used by poets, linguists, meditators and mystics to make the invisible visible, even refresh what’s buried deep within ourselves.

Join us to awaken your natural capacity for metaphor. Be more present in nature—and your life.